&nbspThe SCHEDULE ratings represent the average schedule difficulty faced&nbspby each team in the games that it's played so far. The schedule&nbspdifficulty of a given game takes into account the rating of the&nbspopponent and the location of the game.

&nbspTo make predictions for upcoming games, simply compare the RATINGS of&nbspthe teams in question and allow an ADDITIONAL .50 goals for the home&nbspteam. Thus, for example, a HOME team with a rating of 2.47 would be&nbspfavored by 1.08 goals over a VISITING team having a rating of 1.89&nbspOr a VISITING team with a rating of 3.14 would be favored by .29 goals&nbspover a HOME team having a rating of 2.35

NOTE: Use whatever home advantage is listed in the output below.&nbsp In the example just above, a home edge of .50 was shown for&nbsp illustrative purposes. The home edge will vary during the season.

The numbers to the right of a team's schedule strength are its rank ofschedule - (in parentheses) - and its record versus teams in theserating's top 4&nbspand top 8&nbsprespectively.

For the first few weeks of the season, the starting ratings have weightin the process(BAYESIAN), but once the teams are all CONNECTED, thenthe starting ratings are no longer used and all teams are started equaland the ratings are then done in an UNBIASED&nbspmanner from that point on.The teams are now CONNECTED&nbspand the ratings are UNBIASED.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In ELO CHESS, only winning&nbspand losing&nbspmatters; the score margin&nbspis of no consequence,which makes it very "politically correct". However it is less accurate&nbspin its predictions&nbspforupcoming games&nbspthan is the PURE POINTS, in which the score margin&nbspis the only thing&nbspthat matters.PURE POINTS&nbspis also known as PREDICTOR, BALLANTINE, RHEINGOLD, WHITE OWL&nbspand is the best single PREDICTORof future games.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The overall RATING&nbspis a synthesis&nbspof the two diametrical opposites, ELO CHESS&nbspand PURE POINTS (PREDICTOR).

Divisional Rankings

There are two group ratings, the "central mean"&nbspand the"simple average"&nbsp(also known as the "arithmetic mean")The "central mean"&nbspgives the most weight to the middle team(s)in the group and progressively less weight to teams as you goaway from the middle in either direction, up or down.

This tends to smooth out the effect of anomalous teams that are ratedmuch higher and lower than the middle team(s) in the group. The"simple average" ("arithmetic mean")&nbspweights each team equallyno matter where they are relative to the middle.

Here are a few examples of how the "central mean"&nbspis computed.&nbsp 4-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-2-1&nbsp 5-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-2-1&nbsp 6-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-3-2-1&nbsp 7-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-3-2-1&nbsp 8-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1&nbsp 9-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1&nbsp10-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1&nbsp11-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-5-6-5-4-3-2-1&nbsp12-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3-2-1&nbsp13-team group ___ the weights are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-6-5-4-3-2-1This is in a sense the continuous version of the discrete "tri-mean".